23 
the skeleton of the Gorilla has been investigated by Professor 
Owen and by the late Professor Duvernoy, of the Jardin des 
Plantes, the latter having further supplied a valuable account 
of the muscular system and of many of the other soft parts ; 
while African missionaries and travellers have confirmed and 
expanded the account originally given of the habits of this 
great man-like Ape, which has had the singular fortune of 
being the first to be made known to the general world and 
the last to be scientifically investigated. 
Two centuries and a half have passed away since Battell 
told his stories about the ‘ greater’ and the ‘lesser monsters’ 
to Purchas, and it has taken nearly that time to arrive at the 
clear result that there are four distinct kinds of Anthropoids 
—in Eastern Asia, the Gibbons and the Orangs; in Western 
Africa, the Chimpanzees and the Gorilla. 
The man-like Apes, the history of whose discovery has 
just been detailed, have certain characters of structure and of 
distribution in common. Thus they all have the same number 
of teeth as man—possessing four incisors, two canines, four 
false molars, and six true molars in each jaw, or 32 teeth in 
all, in the adult condition; while the milk dentition consists 
of 20 teeth—or four incisors, two canines, and four molars in 
each jaw. They are what are called catarrhine Apes—that 
is, their nostrils have a narrow partition and look downwards ; 
and, furthermore, their arms are always longer than their 
legs, the difference being sometimes greater and sometimes 
less; so that if the four were arranged in the order of the 
length of their arms in proportion to that of their legs, we 
should have this series—Orang (14—1), Gibbon (14—1), 
Gorilla (14—1), Chimpanzee (1;5;—1). Inall, the fore limbs 
are terminated by hands, provided with longer or shorter 
thumbs; while the great toe of the foot, always smaller than 
in Man, is far more moveable than in him and can be opposed, 
like a thumb, to the rest of the foot. None of these apes have 
tails, and none of them possess the cheek-pouches common 
